The example of Zazu is the exact same one I was going to use for Cleo (sometimes I'm not fast enough - lots of smileys on my fingers). Probable future behavior: everytime Bev presents her hand, Zazu will bite so that Bev pulls her hand away. I think the target behavior would be the the biting. A question - do you think combining clicker training with ABA is a good idea?

Pat, clicker training is operant conditioning which is a part of Applied Behaviour Analysis. The click just tells the bird that something good is coming. It is positive reinforcement training which is what ABA is all about. Most positive, least intrusive.

Clicker training is a wonderful tool. I do a little of it myself but I'm not very disciplined. I've seen people accomplish some amazing things with a clicker.

What does Zazu get out of it?

Bev

Very good, Daniel or Laura!! LOL Which is it? So the screaming would be reinforced if you immediately came back into the room and it was your attention the parrot was after. Make sense?

Now you know most of us think our birds are smarter than other animals so if that's the case, there's no reason why all of us can't teach our birds the things we want them to do as opposed to teaching them the behaviours we don't want them to do, ie screaming, biting, etc.

This is what can be done with a clicker. I am enjoying this book tremendously and the videos are amazing. The dog that was taught to blow bubbles was thoroughly enjoying working for the treats or consequence of his behaviour. If he does what he is asked, then he gets a treat.

I think this is very important. "We try behaving in different ways until we find something that works to get the consequence or result we want. The behaviour that is finally succesful in getting the desired help is positively reinforced. The underlying idea of positive reinfrocement is to "catch them being good," and reinforce X's good behaviour".

This ofcourse, can be applied to birds. A bird may scream for attention. One should ignore this behaviour and praise the bird for another way of calling you i.e saying "hello", a whistle etc. This way the parrot has learned, through trial and error, that he will receive the consequence he wants by talking, whisteling.

My birds always have access to food. Always. I know people who feed their birds twice a day but I figure we already take enough away from our birds that I am certainly not going to allow them to go hungry. Now having said that, when I get home from work and the gym, Zazu is very, very hungry. She waits to eat with me so the whole time I am making supper she is on top of the fridge whining. Funny thing is there have been times when I've been on a diet when she couldn't have what I was eating and I made her something that normally she loves and she won't touch it. It's a very social thing with our birds. The difference is this is Zazu's choice because she does have food in her cage.

Screaming is a very difficult behaviour to modify, Daniel so the best way to deal with it, is to never let it start in the first place. Nikki and Zazu were both rehomed for screaming and Nikki had biting thrown in too. They screamed in their previous homes because it was reinforced. I never reinfornced it so they knew right out of the gate, it wouldn't get them anywhere. Unless there is a paycheck for the birds, they don't do it. All behaviour has function.

Reading through "What are consequences?" I came to page 48 "Reinforcement schedules".

When we talk about parrots, what is usually the best? Continous reinforcement, fixed ratio or variable ratio? Would it be best to start off with continous reinforcement till the bird gets the hang of the desired behaviour and THEN move on to either fixed ratio and/or then variable ratio?

Definitely continuous, Daniel. I hear people say all the time (people who don't understand ABA) that they don't want to have to walk around with treats all the time. What happens is over time you become a conditioned reinforcer so that most of the time that I ask my birds to do something, they do it because they want to. I do pay them in the morning and when I put them to bed because fair is fair. For the same reason, the pigeons in the park fly to me because they think I have food for them. Some days I do, most days I don't but they don't know when. So the feeding is on an intermittent schedule. I don't know why people get so hung up about giving their birds "rewards/treats/consequences for requested behaviour. Would you keep going to work if you didn't get paid? I don't think so. LOL